Science has finally caught up to Faith

Something very strange happened in the world of physics several decades ago. When trying to understand why gravity exists, the physicists came across an amazing and perplexing discovery - there was not enough visible matter to justify the existing gravity on the planet. This discovery destroyed some fundamental laws of physics and caused quite a stir. Certainly the basic laws of physics could not be wrong and if so, where was the remaining mass? Although we know what gravity is, we have been trying to explain why it occurs since the days of Albert Einstein. Even Einstein theorized that gravity actually was not a force but rather an outcome or a by product of some greater force. He spent the best part of his life and over three decades researching a unified theory. He never finished his unified theory and eventually discarded his ideas on gravity being a by product of a larger force. Half a century later it seems Einstein was right.

The journey to explain one of sciences great befuddlements began with a search for the hidden mass or matter that could explain the force of gravity. That search ended when with the aid of the Hubble telescope scientists discovered something we now know as dark matter and dark energy. It is called dark because it was first discovered in black holes. Dark matter and dark energy was recently confirmed after studying data from a long ago collision of two giant galaxies. The recent scientific advance came from NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory where the data received by the most massive release of energy since the Big Bang was analyzed.  The collision of these two galaxies comprising of billions of planets some 3 billion light years away was so massive that it stripped the dark matter away from the visible matter and the gravitational force from the dark matter was confirmed.

To make things more complicated scientists have also confirmed that dark matter and dark energy make up the vast majority of the energy in everything. The percentages vary but estimates are that the energy in all visible matter – animals, vegetation, humans and inanimate objects like rocks and water – are 80 or 90% comprised of this mysterious universal source of energy. This would come as no surprise to Max Planck, the 1918 Nobel Prize winner in physics for being the originator of a quantum theory that everything is not made up of waves and particles, but energy packets. When Planck accepted his award he stated that he did not discover quantum physics, but rather that everything in the universe was part of some powerful and all encompassing force.

To this astrophysical layman, when we talk about this source energy being a part everything and everything being a part of this source, it begs the question, is this energy force what we refer to as God? Are these dark black holes the doorways to other dimensions, parallel universes or the pearly gates to Heaven? Forget the science for a moment and let us consider the historical story behind this source.

For those who study ancient native beliefs, read scriptures or are familiar with the practices from the oldest cultures in the world, this will come as no surprise. Through out all ages and cultures, native people have long understood this force and used it. Many religions have taught us that we are a part of everything and everything is a part of us. This force goes by many names.  The Chinese call it Qi, the Japanese Ki, the Indians some form of Prana. It is in Eastern cultures an essential part of human existence, the very energy field that explains such a visceral connection between thought and outcome. This Source is the force behind practices such as acupuncture, Reiki, cranio-sacral therapy (CST), healing hands, and the means of native North Americans, New Zealand Maoris and Australian aboriginal shaman in one form or another. The power of this pure universal energy is utilized in, alluded to, or supported by Buddhists in their Noble Truths and Eightfold Path; Hindus in their universal soul, Atman; Taoists in their Eight Immortal Gods and of course in prayer by Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Most modern Western medical practitioners still frown upon acknowledging a healing force that cannot be explained through any science we grasp today, but certain hospitals in the West are now openly using Reiki before operations to help prepare patients for the physical trauma.

The more significant development from this latest discovery is not that science has discovered something we never knew. The real and amazing discovery, if we are open to consider and grasp, is that science has finally caught up with faith. That forces we have used and believed for thousands of years without proof, can finally be measured and quantified through the study of knowledge, that thing we call science. Now it is time for faith to catch up to science and it will, as the convergence continues.